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“They watch as much as possible. They watched just because I was on the bench, it’s crazy,” said Hildeby. “I didn’t want to call them. It would be too emotional.”

Hildeby finally got his first start Thursday night in New Jersey and put in a winning effort that had teammates hooting and hollering in the dressing room after the game.

“There was a lot of noise,” said Hildeby. “I was just trying to get in my seat. Honestly, it’s a good feeling. Better than quiet.”

Beast is his nickname, or Hildebeast. At six-foot-seven, he is the tallest NHLer to play so far this year, and tied with four others for tallest goalie in league history. In fact, only 13 skaters have ever been listed as taller than Hildeby.

Between him and six-foot-six Stolarz, the Leafs have the biggest tandem in the NHL. And big goalies typically leave very little to shoot at.

“It’s pretty intimidating to be a shooter and shoot on those guys,” said teammate Steven Lorentz.

Hildeby made a number of terrific saves against New Jersey, stopping the likes of Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Dougie Hamilton.

“The Beast? He looked calm, cool and collected,” said Lorentz. “He looked like a veteran in there, really poised.”

That’s not exactly how Hildeby felt.

“It was a lot of emotions for me to handle,” said Hildeby. “Honestly, I just wanted to make it like any other game. I tried to enjoy it as much as possible, too. But I was a little bit on that back and forth between handling it and getting emotional.”

The Leafs were ecstatic that Hildeby won his first game.

“Phenomenal, really happy for him,” said centre John Tavares. “But also, not surprising. He showed in his time here his potential, his skill set and the belief that’s growing there. So awesome to see. Great way to get our first win of the year, and for him to have a great first game and earn a victory.”

“It’s very special,” said Lorentz. “I think Paul Maurice said it: You can have a great illustrious career with all these accolades, but you only get one first NHL game. So obviously the guys in front of him here wanted to do something special for him. And you could see guys were laying out, blocking shots and stuff. But when the pucks got by, he was there to shut the door.”

The Leafs goaltending situation has had the feel of a carousel — goalies in, goalies out — for a variety of reasons since Jack Campbell took over from Frederik Andersen. Hildeby is the 14th goalie the Leafs have used since Andersen was last seen in blue and white.

Hildeby is also the fifth goalie to win in his Leafs debut over the last 20 years, joining Joseph Woll, Garret Sparks, Ben Scrivens and Justin Pogge. Sparks, Scrivens and Pogge didn’t really work out. But the Leafs believe in Hildeby and Woll, although Woll’s latest of many injuries opened the door for Hildeby to get his first assignment.

Hildeby was called up last year, but only got to sit on the bench as Martin Jones’ backup. Even that, he said, was valuable experience.

“You get to know how things work up here,” said Hildeby. “Like when you don’t know stuff you can get nervous, not knowing what to expect. So just knowing the day-to-day life helps us a lot, and getting to know the guys.”

Stolarz and Woll encouraged him before the game, and tried to calm him down for the start.

“That took the pressure off, telling me to have fun,” said Hildeby. “It was definitely not a perfect game, some things to work on. It felt good. The guys played good, blocked a lot of shots.

“Better than losing.”